Brooklyn Today: July 5, 2012

Brooklyn Today: July 5, 2012

Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Good morning. Today is the 187th day of the year. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle of July 5, 1901, carried the gruesome story of a Brooklyn man who looked for his missing father for five months, only to find him — or what was left of him — on the dissecting table at Columbia Medical College.

It seems that five months beforehand, the body of Robert Walsh, an alcoholic who suffered from epilepsy, had been found in the East River. His pocket contained a slip of paper identifying him by name, but no address. The body was taken to Potter’s Field, but was later removed and shipped to Columbia for the benefit of the medical students there.

* * *

From tonight through July 16, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church, at North Eighth and Havemeyer streets in Williamsburg will host the 125th Giglio Feast honoring the early Italian martyr St. Paulinus of Nola. The highlight of the feast will take place on Sunday, when 100 men will lift a giant tower on their shoulders. All the while, a brass band will be playing on top of the tower. The festival takes place on weeknights from 6 to 11 p.m. and on weekends from noon to midnight. The word “giglio” means lily, the emblem of St. Paulinus.